Chairman’s report for Penrith Canoe Club AGM – 25th Nov 2016

Now into our 5th year as a club and seem to be still growing.

Both Monday club sessions are full to the brim with an average of 30 people attending each week and the standard of polo being played is definitely still improving.

However, only 27 paid up members at present, so obviously people need to get paid up, as there more than that here tonight!!

Last season we had teams in National Div 4 North, Regional Div 3 NW, a joint ladies team with Red Rose in the Ladies Div 2 league and entered teams in 5 Cumbria tournaments and one at Lancaster Uni.

We also entered the open tournaments at Hull, Liverpool and London, which are all excellent social weekends away with lots of polo.

This season we’ve got teams in National Div 4 North (and are poised to win the league! See recent press article), Regional Div 2 NW for some experience against harder teams and a B team in Regional Div 3 NW again to give more people some higher standard tournament experience and this year we’ve got our own Ladies team in National Ladies Div 2. We’ve got 2 cumbria tournaments planned at Penrith, the first one on Dec 3rd next weekend.

I think the improvement in standard has been partly due to the summer sessions spent at Ullswater Yacht Club which have gone really well. Having lost the venue at Distant Horizons, we went back to looking at UYC and it turned out to be an excellent venue.

Its nearly always sheltered from the wind, which we didn’t expect,
Our floating pitch fits exactly between the jetties and is easy to clip on (with a couple of anchors we’ve laid)
There are changing rooms, showers and the bar is open on Friday evenings (also serving fish & chips, so the Farleys don’t have to cook on a Fri night!)
Training on a full size pitch in the fresh air has meant our tactics and fitness are much more suited to the tournament venues we play at in the leagues.
Also having 2 nights per week, ie Mon & Fri has doubled the training available.
UYC couldn’t have been more welcoming and accommodating really.
(Infact, the facility is available at weekends through the winter for those that are keen. See Dan, Katie or Jack if you’re interested.)

However, we didn’t get as many people down there in the summer as we do in the pool in the winter! Is that because its summer and there are other things to do or is it because its out of town?

The only downside was that we couldn’t run a tournament there, as there was sailing racing going on at weekends. We’re looking into that and seeing if we can sort something out for next year.

OK, lets get onto the awards:

Last year we said we’d have a top goal scorer award, and I asked the team organisers to keep a tally. However, the only one that did was Jack and amazingly he told me the top goalscorer in his team was…..Jack!! He did say he thought we therefore shouldn’t award it, but I think he has been quite pivotal in driving forward standards and striving for promotion and entering us in higher leagues, so I’m giving the first of the soon to be coveted PCC glasses to Jack for his ambitiousness.

Last year, Jack won the most yellow cards award, but this year, we haven’t had any from people playing for Penrith, however, our international superstar, Katie managed a red card in the world championships, playing for the U21 Ladies, which is quite impressive, so I’m awarding her a glass for that, to go with her numerous other achievements this year. If you are wondering where she is tonight, she’s at the Cumbria Sports Personality of the Year Awards dinner, where she’s nominated for the ‘Rising Star’ award. Good luck to her. (glass to Dan)

Referees cards are all about rules or breaking them. I’m afraid I can’t not mention a catastrophic not reading of the rules which meant that Penrith could not hold onto the trophy in the event they have dominated over the last few years, namely the tiger boat racing. I’m not sure I should award a glass, because of the devastation it caused to the moral of some members, but in the interest of forgiveness and moving forward, I’ll award this to Jo in the hope that she remembers next year, to read the rules properly and put the correct number of youths in each team!

Katie has definitely helped put Penrith on the canoe polo map and has brought back a lot of coaching drills and tactics from her training, which have helped us as well. Lots of people have been influential in getting Katie to the world champs. For instance, Mike Moffat, who has just been awarded the volunteer coach of the year award, but none of the training would have been possible, without her long suffering training partner and taxi driver, so for that and a lot of other behind the scenes work, I’m awarding the next prize to Dan, our own outstanding club volunteer. (glass award Dan)

Katie isn’t the only one pressing for national squads. Luke, Morven & Caitlin are also regularly training with the development squad, improving their skills. To this end, our second club volunteer award goes to Foxy for all his taxi driving as well! (glass to foxy).

No club can exist without willing volunteers, so I also want to recognise a few more people who do a few of the less glamorous tasks, like doing the paperwork at cumbria tournaments. So big thanks to Bee & Andy (glasses & round of applause).

And of course, the Cumbria Tournaments wouldn’t actually exist at all, without someone to chase up clubs, teams and write playlists, for which a big thanks goes to Twill. But I also want to acknowledge his dedication to diversifying and expanding club activities by organising and running the introductory river trips, which have been really enjoyed by a few members and I’m sure will grow in popularity under his guidance. (glass Twill)

As I’ve said before, the club needs volunteers and last year, we needed a club secretary and Caitlin kindly stepped up to the mark, despite having A levels and university applications to sort out, and not really knowing what it would involve. However, she has done a great job producing concise, clear minutes, but also completing the process that Che started, to get the club through the ‘Clubmark’ process. We are now fully badged up. She has also got the club merchandise sorted in time for Christmas, which we’ve never managed before, so a big thanks to Caitlin. (glass) …….. and if anyone wants to buy her a drink in this glass, her university team, is actually one of the teams we need to beat to win the Div4N league !!!!!!!! Just saying !!!!

Tournaments are always quite sociable affairs and last year, we awarded Brocky the ‘loudest spectator award, but this year a new dominance has emerged on the supporter front, who has even been notable at international level. If you watched any of the facebook posts from the world championships, you will undoubtedly have heard the loudest Mum on them, so this year’s most enthusiastic supporter, goes to Clare (who is currently supporting Katie at the awards ceremony. You’ll definitely hear her, if Katie wins an award!! (glass to Dan)

So in a Canoe Polo family like the Farleys, I was concerned at first that Luke only came along to the club because he had to! However, this year he has definitely shown his mother’s enthusiasm and having trained twice a week, joined the second session on a Monday, refereed games whenever he can, started training with the GB development squad, and taken on the youth team manager role. The coaches have therefore decided to award the ‘most improved junior’ award to Luke Farley. (trophy to Luke) …….. but it was close, because with almost a similar progression, Morven has also been doing all those things, so as a close 2nd, I’ll award an even more prestigious PCC glass to Morven. (glass Morven)

Now if we’re talking loudness and enthusiasm, we have to mention our newest, loudest & most enthusiastic boy racer member, Alan, who is not here tonight, but I’m going to award a glass to, because he just makes everyone smile with his exuberance and ridiculously loud exhaust, and the club should be about enjoying yourself, so glass for alan!

OK, so after all this talk about loudness and enthusiasm, we need to remember that there are more than just the Farleys, the Foxes & Alan in this club, so I want to also recognise the friendly and welcoming nature of the club, and to that end, I’m going to award a glass for the politest member of the club and call it the P’s & Q’s award and lets face it, that has to go to Chad (glass Chad).

The club is all about developing kayaking and polo skills, and we want to recognise some beginners and newcomers as well, so we’ve got a few more awards to encourage our younger and developing players.

So, firstly, the most natural newcomer, who seems to have got in a boat and taken to it easily….Will
Secondly for the best shot in the youth team………….Charlie (glass)
And to show its not just youth that can progress, the oldest member of the youth team……… Nigel (glass)
And finally, the second of our ‘most improved’ trophies, but for the most improved adult this time…

…… a man who has even taken up marathon running, to lose weight, just so that he can fit in a polo boat properly!!!! ……. Andy (trophy)

On a less happy note, just really to make those who don’t know aware, that young Ben, a quiet youth member, who won the ‘Prince of Rolling’ award last year, is not with us tonight, as he’s undergoing chemotherapy at the moment, for a quite rare cancer. I’ve sent the clubs best wishes and we sent him a card, but we also ordered him a club hoodie, so if people would like to chip in £1 towards that, I’m sure it’ll lift his spirits a bit and help make him determined to get back to polo. (Jo will be collecting that later)

OK, back to a few formalities. This is an agm, so we are expected to discuss a few formal things like money.

Jonathan has prepared the accounts and we’ve had them audited every year. I’m not going to pass them round, because people only usually want to know the jist of them. Basically we are still in the black, with slightly less reserves than last year, but we’ve paid more league entries this year, and that money will be paid back in by tournament players, so we have about £1700 in the account. We don’t exist to make money, but obviously the equipment and pool fees are quite expensive, so we do need to keep some reserves. We haven’t put pool fees or membership up this year, even though the actual pool fess have gone up. Paying for the yacht club but not the pool in the summer about evened itself out, but we had more time on the water, being outside. We also applied for and received a second lottery grant for just under £10,000, but that was all spent on equipment, buying the DB boats, the plastic boats and the equipment to keep at the yacht club. Lottery grants require a lot of paperwork, box ticking and reporting, so thanks to Chris for that, as well as setting up our new website, which you should all look at as we are trying to keep it up to date, with events, dates, latest news as well as all the official stuff like policies. So to recognise that work, the final glass award goes to Chris. (glass)

Still on money matters, we have also just received a Pride in Penrith Lottery grant to pay half of the new extra large size polo boat we’ve just bought, and thanks to Dan for the work behind that. Hopefully, we can keep updating the equipment and eventually replace the plastic boats at the lake with composite boats, but it will take a lot of fundraising, so if anyone has any good ideas or contacts, please let us know.

One last formality, is the election of officers. I did post on the facebook page asking if anyone was keen to stand. 52 people saw it but nobody said anything! Would anyone like to put their name forward now?

All the current committee have said they are happy to continue except Caitlin our secretary, who has obviously gone off to Uni. I do have one volunteer to take on the secretary role, our most improved Andy Dawson, so if someone will second his nomination………

So finally before the socialising begins, just to keep our ‘clubmark’ current, we need clear smart targets for this year!!!!!

I suggest they should be:-

Win Div4N
Enjoy all league tournaments
Find a way to put on an outdoor tournament in the summer
Encourage more members to undergo ‘Coach’ training and referee training.

Any more suggestions, let me or any of the committee know.

That’s it. Let the carbo loading begin!!!!

Note: The meal was excellent and the evening was then finished off with some fun party games.

If you want the words of the song, here they are:-